Maximizing Your Body’s Potential

We idolize Olympic runners,
professional football stars, top-ranked tennis players. Their bodies are
strong, disciplined, well-oiled machines in peak physical health. Of course,
these athletes spend hours training their bodies and mastering their sport. However,
it takes more than repetitive practice to obtain the kind of physical
perfection these athletes have achieved. In fact, any expert in the field of
fitness will tell you the number one rule in training is avoiding burnout. In
trying to maximize your body’s potential, you must be careful not to run it into
the ground.

So how do you reach your maximum
potential while avoiding injury? Many experts recommend cross training as a way
for the casual athlete to remain fit and to keep a diversity of activities in
the workout regimen.

What Is Cross Training?

Cross training incorporates diverse
forms of exercise into a training regimen or workout plan. This is the ideal
way to maximize and develop the various components of fitness. The benefits of cross
training range from the obvious, such as injury prevention and rehabilitation, to
the more subtle — for instance, maximizing the potential of a physical body. Cross
training helps to:

strengthen different
muscle group

allow over-strained
muscles time to rest

reduce boredom

train and develop new
skills

improve form

Without exerting your body in new and
unfamiliar ways, you risk reaching a plateau and inhibiting yourself from
attaining optimal fitness.

A cross training fitness plan can be
tailored to anyone’s needs. A basic regimen includes cardiovascular exercise,
strength training, and flexibility conditioning. A more thorough plan will add
speed, agility, and balance drills. Advanced athletes will further improve
strength and agility by adding circuit training, skill conditioning, and
plyometrics. These are modes of training designed to produce rapid, powerful
movements and improve the functions of the nervous system. By incorporating
these diverse forms of exercise, a person challenges his or her respiratory and
musculoskeletal systems while allowing a break from sport-specific activities.
This helps limit the impact put on an athlete who continues to condition and
strain the same muscle groups over and over.

As cross training plans have become
more widely understood as an important part of an athlete’s conditioning
program, diverse forms of exercise have been cropping up. The more widely
recognized of these plans like swimming, cycling, and weight training have been
joined by more unique and surprising exercises like:

yoga

Pilates

dance

kickboxing

virtual exercise

Indoor Bicycling and the Elliptical

Indoor bicycling and use of the
elliptical trainer are great methods for engaging muscles and preventing
injury. By altering the resistance and incline on these machines you can improve
cardio endurance, build muscles in the legs, glutes, and hips, and reinforce
cartilage in the joints.

The impact of pavement on the joints
that occurs during outdoor running causes wear and tear of the body over time.
Low-impact training machines like stationary bikes and the elliptical can alleviate
this problem. Long-distance outdoor running jars the body — the feet and joints
of the legs absorb an excessive amount of impact. The low-impact machines offer
the same benefits of long-distance running, while avoiding the detrimental
effects of pavement pounding.

Free-Weight Training

Free-weight training has long been
regarded as an integral component to many athletic training plans. Repetitive
practice of a specific sport doesn’t offer enough excess strain on the muscles
to allow them to reach peak development. Weight training allows for continual
increase in weight and resistance. This way, the muscles are constantly broken
down and rebuilt to become stronger and more durable. Lifting weights helps to
cultivate the muscles in the back, arms, chest, and legs.

Strength training is especially
important for distance runners and helps to prevent:

shin splints

lower back pain

knee problems

hip injuries

stress fractures

In general it offers the following
benefits.

maximizes and enhances performance

minimizes tissue trauma

improves muscle strength

develops joint flexibility

increases cardiovascular endurance and basal
metabolic rate

Yoga

Yoga has emerged as popular cross
training techniques for everyone from tennis, football, and soccer players to
runners, divers, and skiers. Not only does yoga help build strength and muscle
mass by utilizing one’s own body resistance, it also increases flexibility and
loosens the joints. This eases injury and helps prevents overexertion muscles
and tendons.

Yoga works out more than just the body.
It cultivates mindfulness and concentration. The focus, mental presence, and
stress management required during both the asana and meditation portions of yoga
practice can be translated to most any type of sport.

Pilates

Pilates focuses primarily on building
core muscle and strengthening the body from the center out. Many injuries can
be traced back to the muscles situated in the core. A strong and stable center,
appropriately termed the “powerhouse,” begins at the bottom of the ribs and
extends down to the hip line. It includes:

the abdominal

lower back

hip muscles

the Kegel muscles
within the pelvic floor

the glutes

A strong core aids in energy, stability,
and strength and aids in performing other exercises.

Virtual Cross Training

Virtual outlets provide surprising but
still effective forms of cross training for all ages. The Nintendo Wii Fit
offers a variety of training options including:

yoga

dancing

boxing

balancing

step aerobics

strength training

Aerobic videos are easily available
online and offer new and unique ways to improve cardiovascular endurance. Short
bursts of jumping jacks, jump rope, and boxing moves exert the body in quick
and beneficial ways.